Communication Studies: Encyclopedias & Methods

This subject guide is a starting point for communication-related research, including mass media, speech communication, and more.

Background Sources in the UW Libraries

Encyclopedias and dictionaries provide background information and can be used to identify key people, events and dates which can then be used as search terms for finding additional information. In addition most encyclopedia articles include short bibliographies that will lead you to related readings.

These collections include encyclopedias covering many different subjects. Search them to find an encyclopedia or other reference book related to your topic.

Articles, books (including the complete Little Green and Little blue book series), case studies, datasets, and video covering quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research methodologies in the social and behavioral sciences. Includes Sage Research Methods Cases (SRMC) and Sage Research Methods Datasets (SRMD). For more information and help, see the SRM research guide.

Communication-related encyclopedias

Some of these sources are available in print only; the links below lead to the UW catalog records for these titles. Reference sources with full text accessible online with a UW login are marked with a lock () image.